Chairperson, firstly, let me thank my parents for attending this Budget Vote debate. Secondly, I wish to thank all members for their participation, and more particularly those who supported the Budget Vote.
Regarding our work on the Mikonzo programme, we are going to be mobilising as communities in order to promote social co-operatives and social entrepreneurs. This comes from what has happened in Brazil. It has been approved by Cabinet and we are moving forward with our work. We will be working to ensure that we implement this programme.
Also, the issue of equal opportunities - forgetting about Van Riebeeck - makes me laugh. The issue of equal opportunities has confused our people a lot, because you cannot talk about equal opportunities when you are not equal. What we are doing now is to uplift the quality of life of our people. Additionally, our people are not in control of the resources. What is important is for us to be able to control the resources on the ground, and then you can talk about equal opportunities, because we would then be competing on an equal basis. [Applause.]
We are told to forget about Van Riebeeck. Jews are still talking about the Holocaust today. Every year they remind us of the Holocaust. They do not stop talking about it. We can forgive, but forget - never. We would be committing a big mistake. [Applause.]
When it comes to the provision of services, I think the Western Cape is part of this. I want to report to this House that whenever time we come here, social workers disappear. We have brought social workers from the head office to Gugulethu, Khayelitsha, Langa, Valhalla, Delft, De Doorns, Atlantis, Heideveld, to mention but a few places. This says that there are people who want to behave as if the Western Cape is a country on its own. [Interjections.] [Applause.]
On a lighter note, the issue of the distribution of food parcels is always talked about when we are campaigning during the election period. As I am speaking, we have been to Delft - after the elections - Phalaborwa, eThekwini and Marikana - we are going back there on Sunday. We are going to Mafikeng on the 18th, and the Deputy Minister will be in Titibe Village in Limpopo. So we are out there to ensure that we fight poverty. Bathi ngesintu indlala iza kugwetywa. [Kwaqhwatywa.] [They say in our language, hunger will be a thing of the past. [Applause.]]
Regarding the issue of early childhood development, the ruling party conference in Mangaung took a decision that ECD must be a public good. We are going to come up with legislation - firstly policy and then legislation. Even so, we have been supporting ECD. That is why we started with the audit. We have equalised support for ECD centres. Moreover, we are going to be training ECD practitioners ... [Applause.] ... because we do not want to leave them behind; and, more particularly, because ECD centres are driven by women. They were an initiative of women, and during the struggle women knew that our children had to grow up under the right conditions because they had to develop cognitively, emotionally, psychologically and all the issues you raised, hon member.
When it comes to the issue of nonprofit organisation funding, we are reviewing policy in 2019, but we are supporting NPOs, and, when it comes to child protection organisations, we are not going to stop supporting them, because they are not suitcase organisations. They are with the people on the ground. What we are going to do is train them, build capacity and incubate them so that they can provide the proper services. The research that the hon Kopane talked about was done by us. So the recommendations that we are implementing come from us. The issue of universalisation, again, comes from the ruling party. It does not come from the DA. And the pioneers of the campaign were the late Baba Mgojo and the committee on older persons. So, one should not the claim other people's victories. We will be implementing this in 2016. Thank you very much, Chairperson. [Applause.]
Debate concluded.